China grows less, because the new leadership has done a good job

This week has been quiet and it ends practically in silence.

China released preliminary GDP numbers, showing that 2012 ended on a positive note, with year-on-year quarterly growthpushed up to 7.9% by infrastructure investments. On the back of this, China lifted its growth forecast for 2013 from 8% to 8.2%. But slow down for a second, overall 2012 has seen the least expansion of the economy since 1999! Why the optimism? Oh right, because China’s leadership changed in November and the new guys need to look good. Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China announced short-term liquidity operations to counteract inflation, “as it too has no choice but to ease although not by the conventional inflation targeting methods now used by everyone else.” read article

In the US debt ceiling crisis (yes, let’s just call it a crisis, it’s become the accepted synonym of any situation) is being complicated by tax refunds. On average, most taxes are being filed in February, says the FT, making it hard to forecast government cash flows:

For instance, in February 2012, daily tax refunds paid out by Treasury varied from a low of $140m on February 2, to a high of $14.7bn on February 8 – with significant spikes and drops within that range throughout February.

In the background, Reuters engages in a US-markets-default-scenario mind game. read article

The Handelsblatt says Commerzbank is looking to cut 6,000 jobs in Germany, joining all other banks infiring people restructuring their employee base.